BLUE PLAQUE FOR PROFESSOR JOHN NEWPORT LANGLEY (1852-1925), EMINENT PHYSIOLOGIST BORN IN NEWBURY WOSE WORK HELPED LAY THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN MEDICINE.
For its 17th blue plaque, Newbury Town Council is commemorating an eminent academic, John Newport Langley, Professor of Physiology at Cambridge 1903-25, who achieved ground-breaking work in two main areas of physiology. He was born in Newbury and lived here until the age of about 10, when he left to attend Exeter Grammar School.
He near-single-handedly established the physiology of the autonomic nervous system, including the well know sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ response. He was also the first person to use the term ‘receptive substances’ to describe receptor proteins in the cell membrane that respond to external chemical signals such as hormones and neurotransmitters. It is on this basis that much of modern pharmacology and pharmaceutical drug development depends.
The plaque will be located at 58 West Street, by kind permission of the owners Newbury Samaritans. It will be unveiled at 11am on Thursday 2nd March by the Mayor of Newbury, Cllr Gary Norman. Langley’s home was 50 West Street, part of the adjoining terrace, which was demolished in the 1960’s.
John Langley was the son of a private schoolmaster. His uncle Rev. Henry Newport was headmaster of Exeter Grammar School and had previously (1848-52) been the first Headmaster of St Bartholomew’s School, Newbury after its re-foundation. From taking his BA in 1875, Langley engaged in a lifetime of research at Cambridge into neurophysiology. In 1877 he was elected Fellow of St John’s College and in 1883 Fellow of the Royal Society.
Cllr Nigel Foot, Vice Chairperson of the Town Council Heritage Working Group, said, “John Langley was one of the researchers on whose outstanding work modern medicine is based. We are very grateful to Newbury Samaritans for agreeing to host the plaque, and to the Newbury Society for a generous donation to the cost”.
The blue plaque has also been welcomed by Cambridge University’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience.
Contacts:
Cllr Nigel Foot, Vice-Chairperson NTC Heritage Working Group nigel.foot@newbury.gov.uk 07970 790773
Hugh Peacocke, CEO, Newbury Town Council Hugh.Peacocke@newbury.gov.uk 01635 35486
